On Sunday, the nonprofit group Southwest Key Programs, which operates the middle referred to as Casa Padre, confirmed that was lacking.

The information of a teen’s departure got here as firm officers sought to reassure members of Congress and the information media who had toured the middle that the roughly 1,500 boys residing there, aged 10 to 17, have been properly cared for and carefully monitored.

A spokesman for Southwest Key, Jeff Eller, stated on Sunday it couldn’t legally require kids to remain on the premises in the event that they sought to depart, and that “from time to time” kids had left a number of of its 27 shelters for immigrant kids.

“We are not a detention center,” Mr. Eller stated in a press release. “We talk to them and try to get them to stay. If they leave the property, we call law enforcement.”

Federal officers echoed that place, saying they might not cease a baby who tried to depart. The officers didn’t reply to a query about what number of kids had walked away from migrant facilities nationwide.

Mr. Eller stated that lower than 1 p.c of the entire kids who’ve come by means of Southwest Key’s facilities have left, although he declined to supply particular numbers.

The revelation that kids can go away such facilities on their very own raised a number of questions in regards to the shelter system: What occurs to their immigration proceedings; how relations can reunite; whether or not they can sidestep the prolonged technique of being accredited for launch to a mother or father or sponsor; and who’s answerable for their security, particularly in an space just like the Rio Grande Valley, one of many busiest corridors for human trafficking.

Michelle Brané, the director of the migrant rights and justice program on the Women’s Refugee Commission, a analysis and advocacy group, stated that whereas teams like Southwest Key can not act in a regulation enforcement capability and lacked the authority to “tackle a kid and restrain them,” officers there should name the authorities when kids go away the premises as a result of they’re technically in federal custody.

It is feasible the kids who go away merely wish to “go find their parents,” she stated, including, “If children are running away, that raises questions about the care that’s being provided.”

Mr. Eller stated left Casa Padre at three p.m. on Saturday and didn’t return. Staff members tried to maintain the boy there, as they do with all kids who wish to go away, he stated.

“It’s a conversation, a conversation that we’re here to help you, we’re here to help you get back with your family,” he stated. “We can’t help you if you decide to leave.”

The teenager’s leaving was reported to the police in Brownsville, who didn’t reply to requests for touch upon Sunday.

Federal officers stated the boy had introduced himself on the border alone. If is discovered, he’ll return into the custody of the Department of Homeland Security and be referred once more to the Office of Refugee Resettlement, officers stated.

Tony Martinez, the mayor of Brownsville, stated he couldn’t recall a earlier case of a kid strolling away from Casa Padre.

“If the facility was such a great idea, why are they trying to get out?” he stated on Sunday. “Most of the people that escape, they escape from jails. They escape from prisons, because it’s not a fun place to be at. I can just imagine what might be going through that young man’s head, at 15 years old: ‘What am I doing here?’”

Representative Filemon B. Vela Jr., a Democrat who represents Brownsville, toured Casa Padre with different Democrats and stated it was “difficult to comprehend how a child could escape the facility.”

“For now, we can only pray for the child’s well-being and hope that authorities are able to find him,” he stated.

Controversy over Mr. Trump’s immigration coverage erupted after the federal authorities introduced that it could pursue a “zero tolerance” coverage of prosecuting each grownup who illegally crossed the border or tried to.

On Saturday, the federal government stated it had reunited 522 migrant children who have been separated from adults, and was in search of to reunite the greater than 2,000 different kids in federal custody who have been additionally separated.

The Casa Padre shelter, a state-licensed baby care facility, homes two units of undocumented youth — those that have been separated from their family members by the Trump administration’s family-separation coverage and people, just like the lacking teenager, who had illegally crossed the border unaccompanied by a mother or father or guardian. The majority have been unaccompanied youth.

Melissa Gomez and Matt Stevens contributed reporting.

A model of this text seems in print on , on Page A13 of the New York version with the headline: Migrant Boy Slips Away From a Shelter in Texas. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe